There are hundreds of companies telling us what we need to buy, spend or use to be a good parent. This blog is about finding a simpler outlook to parenting and is filled with my ideas on how to spend less and parent more.

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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Sweets for the sweet

We’re not much for lollies in our house. That’s
not to say we don’t like them. I’m a regular lolly monster when it comes to
gummy sweets, I used to devour whole bags at a time. But I was also well
overweight and tired to boot. So I no longer buy them, and when I do they spend
their existence in a dark cupboard out of reach where they slowly evaporate and
my husband shrugs his shoulders in innocence, all the while looking shiftily
from side to side.

I’d happily exist in a world where
lollipops didn’t loiter at supermarket checkouts for little hands to grab, where
k bars didn’t exist at all and grandmas never thought to have a jar of brightly
coloured lollies in plain sight.

I believe children should have treats, but until my sons first lollipop he
believed a treat was some cherry tomatoes from the supermarket or a homemade
fruit smoothie icecream or even a cuddle. Then grandma happened and the first
lollipop happened. Now we can’t walk past a convenient chupa chup dispenser at
child height without some sort of negotiation process which usually ends in us
leaving the supermarket. My son had his first dental appointment a few months
ago and with that his first filling. To say I was annoyed might be understating
it a little.

I love my mum in law, she is lovely,
however, her view on sugar and treats for children differs wildly from mine.
But she’s allowed, she’s the grandma. At least that is what my friends tell me.
I could start a rant about my views on how grandparents have a ‘right’ to
bypass your decisions on nutrition and rewards but there is very little point.
At the end of the day I let it go because on my list of things to spend time
worrying about this falls pretty low. Not because I don’t value my sons teeth
but because I do value my sons relationship with his grandparents. Please don’t
conflate the fact that I value their relationship with my approach to treats
and love. It’s a bit more complex than that – but I ramble on.

The latest grandma treat came in the form
of a bag of pebbles. I considered hiding them, possibly in my mouth, but that
didn’t seem fair.

So we washed them instead.

What’s that you say?

Well it was a cunning trick to turn candy from a food into a game and it went
something a little like this…

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About Me

I am mother of two beautiful boys with a fabulous (and patient) husband. I am currently studying Naturopathy and like to think we are a healthy living family. I am really conscious of the choices we make as parents which affect our children into the future. My ideal is to have as little impact on the planet as possible as well as healthy, happy children who will be a future generation to be proud of. On a tight budget I learned to get creative! I just felt like sharing a little of what I learned...